LIMITING the numbers of part-time students at private universities is at odds with the Slovak Constitution, the Constitutional Court ruled on May 26.
The ruling came after an appeal from 35 MPs was delivered to the Constitutional Court in November 2007, in which they complained about some provisions of the University Act violating the Constitution. The MPs claimed that the law improperly interfered with the freedom of private universities by limiting the number of part-time students they enrol, based on the number of full-time students enrolled, the TASR newswire reported.
“While public universities and state universities are established by law and financed mainly from state resources, in the case of private universities, though the government issues permits for them, they are required to finance their activities from their own resources, mainly from the fees collected from students,” the MPs wrote in their appeal to the court. That means that limiting the number of students at private universities interferes with their ability to raise funds and directly affects their right to do business and maintain property.
The Constitutional Court agreed with the appeal, specifiying the paragraphs in the University Act which were at odds with the Constitution.
